I'm tired of Top X NES games lists

[Protoman]

GameTrailers just put up their Top 20 NES games, 20-11, and it made me think man, I'm sick of Top NES games lists... Why can't more gaming outlets and youtubers be more like satoshimatrix and include Famicom?
I mean in this day and age all games are pretty much available to us and I'm tired of seeing Final Fantasy for instance on a list like that when Final Fantasy III is clearly better but it never came out on NES so it's not on there. Or the constant omissions of Famicom greats like Kunio-kun jidaigeki, Holy Diver or Moon Crystal. Even Disk games like Ai Senshi Nicol should be considered, to me they're ALL part of "Nintendo 8-bit", not just NES or Famicom.

[HVC-Man]

It's a stereotypical American thing. Either they are completely xenophobic towards anything not released in the USA, or they become utterly infatuated with Japan to the point that they worship it.

I for one would prefer the Famicom get more respect. There are still people harvesting Famicom games to make into NES cartridges...

[P]

I feel the same. I don't see the point of such NES only lists when there are so many must-have titles that never came in 72-pin versions.

[chowder]

I don't see the point because they're completely subjective.  Even those voted for by other people still end up slanted to the big-name titles.  One man's gem is another man's turd

I'd prefer it if the attention stays away from Famicom stuff anyway, the NES scene is a clusterfuck of epic proportions nowadays.  Particularly entertaining are the NA collector crowd who bitch about prices going through the roof, but willingly fork out $10K for an admittedly rare, but shit game like Stadium Events.

[zmaster18]

I don't see the point because they're completely subjective.  Even those voted for by other people still end up slanted to the big-name titles.  One man's gem is another man's turd

I'd prefer it if the attention stays away from Famicom stuff anyway, the NES scene is a clusterfuck of epic proportions nowadays.  Particularly entertaining are the NA collector crowd who bitch about prices going through the roof, but willingly fork out $10K for an admittedly rare, but shit game like Stadium Events.

I agree with this. I like how Japanese Nintendo stuff is very cheap at the moment. Don't tell anyone!!!    For example, Japanese N64 games like Mario Kart 64 and Smash Bros are roughly 10x less than the going rate of an American copy. This is our secret little way of getting games extremely cheap or making money of these games

[Zycrow]

Yeah I generally steer clear of the "top xx" and even the "bottom xx" lists that are NES focused since they usually only get into the same 20 or 30 games each time. Hearing yet another person talk about how great Mega Man 2 or SMB3 is doesn't really help me much at this point.

It's also why I'd rather watch something like Chrontendo or Generation 16 over, say, Game Grumps or Continue Show, since the latter are ultimately "yuk yuk, this game is awesome/terrible" and don't really get into the WHEN and WHY of things.

[kevkevkev]

Just look at james n mike mondays. They have no idea about imports outside of usa. Its all nesnesnes. american attitudes im afraid.  Holy diver has some of the best control of any game.

[zmaster18]

Just look at james n mike mondays. They have no idea about imports outside of usa. Its all nesnesnes. american attitudes im afraid.  Holy diver has some of the best control of any game.

I agree!! One thing that always bothers me is when James says that the label of his pirated Ducktales is the what the Japanese Famicom Ducktales looks like. I don't think he knows that an official one looks like, so maybe he thinks that's actually what is.

[Nightstar699]

I'm a bit disappointed to see the amount of people boiling this down to "it's an American thing", when that's greatly oversimplifying it, and is simply untrue. I hate top X lists (not just for NES games, either) more than pretty much anyone, because they generally consist of the same few predictable, hacky choices, just maybe shuffled around a bit, sometimes with a less-predictable "wild card" thrown into the mix. Fact of the matter is, people in general are more likely to favor what they enjoyed as a child. This is just how it is, as much as I hate it. Hence why Japan-only games will rarely pop up in any top X list that isn't of Japanese origin... unless, of course, it's a list that specifically focuses on Japan-only releases. Or why "obscure" (and I use that term VERY loosely nowadays) games will rarely pop up on lists unless, again, they specifically focus on hidden gems. Because these are games that the general audience didn't grow up with.

Believe me, any top X NES games list without Mitsume Ga Tooru on it is laughable, but I wouldn't pin it simply on a writer's nationality.

Holy diver has some of the best control of any game.

Dude, I'm a Holy Diver enthusiast and I 1CC it on a regular basis, but come on. There's a crippling flaw with the controls, being unable to jump directly after tapping a direction, that's a big enough oversight to prevent the control from being anywhere near 'perfect'. Holy Diver is amazing because of ingenious level design and varied usage of its magic spells, not the control.

[Protoman]

I don't think it's so unfair to say it's an american thing, but the same applies to "a european thing" etc. Or even a japanese thing, if you have japanese people making Top 10 Famicom games and not looking at NES-only games at all like StarTropics etc. It's understandable too, of course most people play only what is available to them.

On the James & Mike thing, I noticed in his Tranformers video that he said "usually games, no matter how shitty, would see an international release" and then all games he showed except for Super Mario Bros 3, were pirate carts. He's not well versed in Famicom, which is fine, but I could say I wanted him to research a little bit before making videos. A google search for "Duck tales famicom" gets you the cartridge art immediately.

[fcgamer]

The funniest thing about the notion of "usually games, no matter how shitty, would see an international release" is that a large portion of the NES-exclusive games are shitty.